Hello Carolyn,

Welcome to the Academic Affairs newsletter. Browse updates and announcements, connect to tips and resources, and check out stories from around campus.

Message from EVC Simmons

Dear Colleagues,


As the fall quarter approaches, many exciting developments in the arts will come to fruition. As most of you know, UC San Diego has worked to distinguish itself in the arts landscape since its founding. Our commitment to building innovative arts facilities, scheduling inclusive, diverse programming, hiring collaborative leaders, and continuing groundbreaking and internationally notable arts scholarship is solidifying our role as an arts destination. 


Perhaps most dramatic will be the opening of the new Epstein Family Amphitheater and its inaugural events in late October, as well as the re-opening of the Mandeville Art Gallery and increased programming at Park & Market. Their locations in proximity to the UC San Diego Blue Line trolley will make a wealth of arts offerings easily accessible across Southern California and into Baja California.


Additionally, newly-hired, collaborative arts leaders including Colleen Kollar Smith, the inaugural Executive Director of the new Campus Performance and Events Office, and Jessica Berlanga Taylor, the new director of the Stuart Collection, are committed to further connecting the campus and greater San Diego community by curating events and arts offerings that represent a variety of lived perspectives and experiences.


UC San Diego’s Design Lab is a key partner in the first-ever bi-national selection of San Diego-Tijuana as the World Design Capital 2024. Planning and organization leading up to this yearlong designation will continue this fall. And in 2024, a variety of design-related events centered around the theme of Human-Centered, Open, Multidisciplinary/Multicultural, and Experimental projects that will enhance and revitalize the San Diego-Tijuana region will be very exciting.


These new spaces and leaders and initiatives align with a tradition of outstanding academic and scholarly work by our faculty and students in the departments of Music, Theatre and Dance, and Visual Arts, the center for Cinematic Arts, and the programs in Writing and Interdisciplinary Computing in the Arts. The new additions will enable this rich intellectual legacy to have even greater impact throughout the region.


And finally, a new campus arts website at arts.ucsd.edu that will launch later in September will serve as a hub, connecting all of the arts offerings across our campus with interested students, faculty, staff and community patrons.


I look forward to celebrating the arts at UC San Diego with you this fall!



Elizabeth H. Simmons

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Faculty Invited to Participate in New Student Convocation



Faculty are invited to participate in the annual New Student Welcome Convocation on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022 at 4:30 p.m., on RIMAC Field. Convocation is the inaugural academic event for incoming undergraduate students, both first-years and transfers, and serves as their formal entrance into UC San Diego's scholarly community. Participating faculty will join in the Convocation Processional at the start of the ceremony, and will be seated facing the audience as an extension of the platform party during the program. Faculty participants will assemble at a reception beginning at 3:30 p.m., and the platform party and faculty processional will begin at 4:20 p.m., led by incoming Senate Chair Nancy Postero. The event will last one hour and regalia will not be worn. Please RSVP to evc-events@ucsd.edu by Tuesday, Sept. 13 with your attendance plans.

Speech and Debate Team Experience Helps Students Find Employment Post-Graduation 


Developing oral presentation and persuasion skills is an important part of what students gain from participating in UCSD Speech & Debate. “My career took off immediately, because I could effectively communicate with my peers and supervisors,” said founding president and team captain, and 2019 graduate, Shaheryar Ajmal. “I made an impact on my company’s projects and goals, because I was trained in effective communication and persuasion.” UC San Diego’s Speech & Debate Team has been increasingly successful since its beginnings in fall 2018. With the recent completion of its fourth season, the team dominated both Northern and Southern California championship debate tournaments, broke school records for number of intercollegiate tournament awards, and has now become a permanent, formal program of UCSD’s Communications Department. To learn more about UCSD Speech & Debate, contact Coach Robert Campbell via email rhcampbell@ucsd.edu or visit the team’s website


Upcoming Town Halls


Faculty and Research Town Hall

Wednesday, Oct. 12, at 1:30 p.m.

Registration will be available soon



Staff Town Hall

Tuesday, Oct. 4, at 1 p.m. Register here.

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Reminder to Submit Fall Adoptions to Bookstore


Fall Term Adoptions were due to the Bookstore on May 6, however there may still be time to order fall quarter course materials by contacting the Bookstore team immediately. Contacting and working with the Bookstore helps ensure that students have the correct course materials for the lowest price possible and supports the campus’ Inclusive Access program. If you choose for your course to take part in the program, Inclusive Access provides a digital version of your adopted textbook to students automatically for the first two weeks of class and that copy remains free until after the drop/add period. After two weeks, all students who remain in the course will be charged the price of the eBook. Students may opt in/out of the program up to the drop date for the course. Students access the book through the class’ Canvas site, with the Bookstore’s partner, RedShelf providing the eBook. If you have not already done so, please email your adoption details to textbooks@ucsd.edu no later than Sept. 1, and note that you would like to participate in Inclusive Access. The Bookstore will take care of the rest! You may also submit your adoptions by completing the online form.


Contacting the Bookstore by Sept. 1 with your course materials not only supports Inclusive Access by offering instant access to online course materials at the lowest prices possible, but it also allows the Bookstore to place orders with publishers for physical/printed materials to ship and have available for students to purchase before classes start. 


For questions or assistance, please contact the UC San Diego Bookstore at 858-534-4557 or emailing textbooks@ucsd.edu.

Library Announces Two New Open Access Agreements


UC has now secured more than a dozen open access agreements with various publishers, a notable milestone in the University’s effort to make it easier and more affordable for its authors to publish open access. Open access publishing, which makes UC research freely available to the public, is central to UC’s mission as a public university.

Association for Computer Machinery Award Nominations


The Association for Computer Machinery offers several awards that could be of interest to many on the UC San Diego campus. The award nominations deadlines occur throughout the year, with a heavy concentration in January. Please refer to the Nomination Process page for each award, which includes not only information about the deadline but also guidance for preparing each type of nomination.

Attend Fall 2022 Faculty Teaching Workshops



The Teaching + Learning Commons is a university-wide resource that builds excellence in teaching and learning through integration, connection, and ongoing assessment of initiatives towards an engaged and inclusive educational environment. The Engaged Teaching Hub within the Commons offers workshops and courses to introduce and model various teaching methods and allow educators to experiment with new instructional tools and approaches that engage and support learners. These workshops are open to UC San Diego faculty and graduate student instructors, except where noted. Descriptions of all the workshops, as well as registration links can be found online. Please email questions to Engaged Teaching Hub at engagedteaching@ucsd.edu

Collective Impact Highlight

Internationalization in the Spirit of Collective Impact through the ACE Internationalization Lab 


As a student-centered, research-focused, service-oriented public institution, we are using Collective Impact to tackle a variety of opportunity gaps and challenges. With the seventh-largest international student and scholar populations at a university in the United States, campus leadership recognized that holistically supporting our global ecosystem in a strategic and interconnected manner just makes sense. Participation in the ACE Internationalization Laboratory helped address our campus’ need for a more coordinated approach to comprehensive internationalization, including the hiring of an inaugural Assistant Vice Chancellor of Global Initiatives, a recruitment that is currently underway. UC San Diego’s Lab leadership team has developed recommendations for the university along four major themes:  

  • ​Support faculty as frontline champions for internationalization 
  • Break silos to build bridges 
  • Cultivate a culture of global citizenship 
  • Create a community of lifelong Tritons


To read more about the findings of the team and recommendations and opportunities to advance comprehensive internationalization, please visit the UC San Diego Internationalization website

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UExplore Program Applications Now Being Accepted


UExplore is an 8-month professional development program, specifically for staff, to provide exposure and tools to help early career and entry level employees learn about and explore opportunities to advance in their career path at UC San Diego. The application portal will accept applications between Aug. 22 - Sept. 11, 2022. Staff can visit the UExplore Homepage for more details and to apply.

Percipio Online Learning Now Available Through UC Online Learning 

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UC San Diego has partnered with Skillsoft to offer faculty and staff a wide variety of free web-based courses, books, videos, and assessments available through Skillsoft’s new Percipio content library. This new immersive learning platform is designed to make learning easier, more accessible, and more effective. Percipio content is integrated directly into the UC Learning Center. Percipio incorporates multiple learning modalities including video courses, assessments, digital books, certification test preps, and audiobooks.

Reminder - Complete the Staff@Work Survey


The annual Staff@Work Survey is now available online. This is your chance for the voices of UC San Diego staff to be heard. All staff members should have received an email with their unique link and passcode. Note that passcodes and links cannot be shared. The survey will close on Sept. 16, 2022. If you have questions or technical issues, please contact sawsurvey@ucsd.edu

EVC Business Office Adopting ServiceNow Ticketing for Support Requests 


In order to accommodate this growth, and to provide better service to our clients, the EVC Business Office has implemented use of ServiceNow (SNOW) ticketing. This type of interactive ticketing solution is designed to help offices with a high volume of requests manage those requests more effectively by streamlining communication and the status of requests outside of an email process. With the implementation of new ESR systems such as UCPath, Oracle and Concur, the work of EVCBO staff has become more complex in many ways, and often involves more than one team member. Implementing ServiceNow ticketing will allow staff members to collaborate more efficiently in resolving issues and responding to client requests. A 30-minute info session on how the session works has been posted online and the forms for help can be found on the Get Help page of the EVCBO website.

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UC San Diego Named 5th Best Public University by Academic Ranking of World Universities

The University of California San Diego has been ranked 5th among the nation's best public universities for its award-winning faculty and alumni, academic performance and impactful research. The new 2022 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) ranking was released today by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, which also named UC San Diego 16th among colleges in the nation and 21st in the world.

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